


Fall for you

by MsPeppernose



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy
Genre: AU, Fluff, M/M, Peterick, Starbucks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-30
Updated: 2014-10-30
Packaged: 2018-02-23 05:27:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2535830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsPeppernose/pseuds/MsPeppernose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a new barista at Pete's favourite Starbucks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fall for you

**Author's Note:**

> Almost forgot to mention that this was sort of to fill the prompt  
> 'i ordered a pumpkin spice latte at starbucks and you made a heart with the foam and i decided to drink it here so i can smile at you some more'

"Oh awesome," Pete mumbles to himself as he walks into Starbucks for his morning coffee. He had forgotten that fall had started. And if fall is starting, it means that all the pumpkin spiced things he could ever want could be his. For a limited time, at least. Sadly that means he's saying goodbye to the creamy, caramel-covered, iced lattes he'd been drinking all summer, but he can live with them if it means pumpkin spice and cosy sweaters and scarves and crunchy leaves under his feet. Yeah, fall is alright in his book. 

Pete joins the queue at the counter and places his order. There's a new barista serving who is pretty damn cute, if you ask Pete. Pete guesses he is a little bit younger, maybe a little bit shorter and has gorgeous greenish blue eyes, and red-gold hair. There's no conversation between them except for the usual chatter that comes with ordering a coffee, but they exchange polite smiles. Pete waits at the little coffee collection area and another guy with thick curly hair (who Pete thinks might be named Joe, he's worked there for ages and has served Pete a bunch of times), calls Pete for his Pumpkin Spiced latte.

The first one of any of those themed coffee drinks, of any season, is always awesome. Pete tastes the sweetness of the syrup, and the richness of the whipped cream and the comfort of the hot coffee filling his throat. He closes his eyes for just a second to enjoy it. Oh shit, that's good. His brain fills in the blanks and remembers the gallons of the stuff he drank last year. When he opens his eyes again, he catches the new barista looking at him like he's a madman. Pete ducks his head and heads off out of the shop with half a smile to the new guy. 

*

Over the next few weeks, Pete continues to get his morning coffee from the same Starbucks. It's the closet one to his work, or that's what he tells himself. It's got nothing to do with the cute new barista, nothing at all. Mostly it's Joe who serves him, but sometimes it's the new guy, who Pete learns is named Patrick. Pete would like to think that Patrick is being extra nice to him, but there's a strong possibility that Patrick just has excellent customer service skills. Over time, Patrick remembers Pete's order, but not his name yet. Pete understands that, he doesn't take it to heart. Patrick must serve hundreds of customers on busy days so it might be difficult to remember each and every persons order and name. Eventually Patrick does remember his name. Sort of.

"Peter, right? Large Pumpkin spice latte?"  
"Pete." Pete corrects, though he feels like an asshole afterwards. His name is actually Peter after all. "But yeah. Thanks." He flashes a grin and hopes that Patrick doesn't think he's being a dick.  
"Ok. Pete. Awesome. Thanks." Pete could have sworn that Patrick blushes. But the shop is warm and busy so maybe it's from that instead.

*

Pete tries to make conversation when Patrick serves him sometimes, but only when there isn't a line behind him waiting for their coffees.  
"It's starting to get pretty cold out." Pete feels lame for saying that. The weather is such an obvious shitty topic.  
"Yeah. Had to break out my scarf this morning."  
"Me too!" Pete tugs on his own scarf to demonstrate. "Next I'll need to find my mittens." He promptly kicks himself, because he's a grown man. And while he loves his mittens and their cosines, maybe some people don't understand that grown men can wear mittens. He's not going to admit that he also wishes he has mitten-minders like when he was a kid so he won't keep losing the damn things.  
"Oh, yeah. Mittens are awesome." Pete sort of loves Patrick for understanding about the wonders of mittens.  
"Yeah unless you want to flip someone off when you're wearing 'em, then mittens are useless."  
Patrick laughs. Pete is captivated.

*

"Pumpkin Spice latte?" Patrick smiles when he speaks to Pete, and Pete is smitten.  
"You know it." Pete grins. "Have to get my fill of them before I start on all the other holiday drinks."  
"I'm almost at saturation point on pumpkin spice. Working here means I drink about seventeen of them a day."  
"Seventeen is not enough. Make sure you eat lots of other pumpkin flavoured things too to ensure you meet all your daily pumpkin needs." Pete smiles as Patrick hands him his change. He goes to wait at the other end of the counter. When he gets his cup he grabs a little cardboard holder for his cup and when he slips it on, he notices a little heart beside where his name has been written in sharpie. He glances back at Patrick, and Patrick throws him a friendly smile. Awesome. Pete grins and almost floats out of the shop.

*

Pete is incredibly early for work, for once, so he gets to Starbucks before the morning rush hour. There's no queue and Patrick serves him. There's little chit chat, mostly because it's earlier than usual and Pete is not fully awake yet. But there's plenty of little smiles between them, and that enough for Pete. He sits at a table to kill time before work, and tells himself it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he can throw little glances towards Patrick and watch him (not in a creepy way) converse with his colleagues.

Another day Pete is super late for work, the sort of late that could cost him his job if he was to show up at that time repeatedly. He has to skip his morning coffee which means his morning is extra horrific. His boss gives him an earful for being late, and he's caffeine deprived. It can't get much worse than that, it's the sort of day that he would like to take down anyone in his path who crosses him, but instead, he's just grumpy and sullen. His day picks up infinitely when he grabs himself a hot chocolate from his favourite barista on his lunch break. He tells Patrick what a shitty day he's having.  
"That's awful, man."  
"Tell me about it."  
Patrick steps away as Pete is fitting the little cardboard cup holder around his cup. He arrives back and passes Pete a paper Starbucks bag that his a little bulge in it.  
"Here. To make your day better. You didn't get it from me though, ok?"

Pete feels like it's some sorted illicit drug deal, but takes his little paper parcel with a smile. He stuffs it in his pocket, not sure what else to do with it. He only looks inside it when he's nearly back at his office. Inside is a chocolate covered cake pop. Pete spends the rest of the day with a grin on his face even his jerk of a boss can't wipe off.

*

The next time Patrick is making his latte, Pete is all smiles and butterflies in his chest. Patrick passes him his coffee, and Pete sees a slightly misshapen heart drawn in the milk foam on the top. It's adorable.  
Pete sees a chance to bring it up with Patrick, it's a nice thing to chat about. He ignores his nerves and opens his mouth. "So. Um. I really like the little heart in my milk foam." He smiles at Patrick.  
Patrick doesn't smile back, he just looks confused. "Sorry, what?"  
"The little heart is really cute. It's even cuter than the ones you write beside my name sometimes." Pete smiles again and Patrick looks even more confused. His eyebrows scrunch into a scowl and he stares at Pete with a big question mark on his face. Pete starts to feel a little stupid. He points to the heart in the foam on his coffee. Patrick's eyes dart to the cup for a second before realization floods his face. He spins around to face Joe, and Joe looks like he's been caught in the act. "Joe, what did you do?"  
"I was just trying to help." Joe says sheepishly. Pete starts feeling like a fool, like he's caught in the middle of something. He wants to run the fuck away.  
"Help?" Patrick says through gritted teeth, like he's trying to keep some sort of professionalism in front of a customer, while also wanting bitch out his friend. "Help how?"

Joe and Patrick are behind the counter and several feet away from Pete. They're not exactly raising their voices, it's more an animated, exaggerated whisper. Pete can hear them. He spends too long stirring his coffee and adding an extra sugar (even though he knows that the pumpkin spice syrup mix is super sweet already). He wants to hear what's going on, without listening in, even though he obviously really is.

"Ok dude. I'm sorry. I was trying to help. I've been hearing you talk about the hot pumpkin spice latte guy for weeks. With his gorgeous eyes and his amazing ass. I thought I was helping." Pete catches Patrick's eye as Joe finishes speaking. From the look of horror on Patrick's face he knows he wasn't supposed to overhear that.  
"Oh god." Patrick looks like he's about to die.  
"Sorry." Joe looks almost as embarrassed. "I should have said that bit quieter, shouldn't I?"  
"How did you even do that while I'm making coffees? Is that why you've practically standing over me every time I serve this guy? Are you a magician?" Patrick looks livid.  
"Slight of hand?" Joe offers, looking like he's going to shrink into the ground. "Sorry."  
"Um." Pete isn't sure what he should do now. Patrick has the hots for him, which is awesome. But this whole situation is a mess, which is less awesome. Pete is lost for words but he feels like he should say something. And then promptly chickens out. "Thanks for the coffee." Then heads for the door at the speed of light.

* 

Pete decides to avoid Starbucks for the next few days, which turns into a week. He gets his morning coffee in the crappy coffee shop further down the street. The coffee is god awful, more like brown coloured water than actual coffee. The woman who serves him seems to hate him, and probably every other person on the planet. He grits it out for the week, mostly forcing down the coffee solely for the caffeine hit. It's not the same. So he gathers whatever's left of his dignity and heads back to Starbucks.

He's got a knot in his tummy and he's not sure why. It's either from hoping Patrick is not there, or hoping he is. He can't be sure.

Patrick doesn't serve Pete. Joe does, and he looks embarrassed when Pete orders. "Look, man. I'm sorry about last week. I should learn not to play Cupid. Coffee's on me."  
"Hey, it's cool." And it sort of is. Nothing awful has happened. It must be worse for Patrick. There would probably be a really awkward coffee transaction when Patrick serves him next, but really it wasn't the end of the world. 

At that moment Patrick appears from the back room and takes over barista duties from the guy who was about to make Pete's latte. He catches Pete's eye and smiles a little but there's no hello and nothing else. Pete hovers, feeling all sorts of uncomfortable, wishing time would go faster and he could leave. 

When Patrick hands Pete his latte, there's a heart drawn in the foam, just like before. He does a double take feeling unsure, before looking at Patrick who's smiling at him. "There's a heart in my foam again."  
"Yes, there is." Patrick's eyes don't leave Pete's.  
"Should I tell the other guy off for doing it again?"  
"Well," Patrick starts, "you can. Joe can be a jerk. But this one is from me."  
Pete beams at him. "Oh?"  
"Yeah." Patrick looks shy, it's a really good look on him. Some pink in his cheeks makes him look extra adorable. "Maybe I just needed a little push to do it." Patrick leans forwards a little whispers to Pete. "Just don't tell Joe he was right, or I'll never hear the end of it."  
Pete laughs. Actually he fucking *giggles*. Patrick is cute as hell.  
Pete thinks about asking Patrick out but there's a chance that all this is is nothing but flirting and coffee hearts. Pete's not fully sure if he can risk getting sent to coffee purgatory again if he can't look the Starbucks baristas in the eye. But maybe it's worth it.  
"So," he starts, "if you're actually the one drawing hearts in my coffee, can I assume it's ok to ask you out?" Pete swears he can hear a small laugh coming from somewhere behind Patrick. Possibly muffled by a 'fro.  
Patrick blushes harder than Pete's seen before. It's beautiful. "Yeah. How bout tonight? If you're not busy, I mean."  
"Yeah, I'll come pick you up at closing time." Pete heads out with his coffee in his hand feeling the sort of buzz that caffeine never provides.

*

Pete hangs around outside Starbucks at the end of the day while Patrick finishes up. There's a chill in the air and he has his scarf pulled up over the lower half of his face. He has his trusty mittens on and he gives Patrick a little mitten-handed wave when he sees him.  
"Hey. I hope you weren't flipping me off with your mitten hands. I totally couldn't tell." Patrick beams at Pete, and Pete feels like a cheesy idiot grinning back.  
"I'd never do that." He leans in briefly towards Patrick and gives him the briefest of kisses on the centre of his lips. It's almost just a hello kiss, but Patrick's lips are warm and inviting against the cold evening. Pete very much hopes there might be more of that later. "Wanna grab something to eat?"  
"Sure." Pete's going to have cramps in his cheeks be the end of the night if he keeps smiling this hard. It's sort of surreal how the day has turned out. He started off this morning being nervous of getting a goddamn coffee and now he's going on a date with the boy he was crushing on for weeks.  
"So." Pete pulls a mitten off and makes a grab for Patrick's hand as they walk. He laces his fingers between Patrick's and gives them a little squeeze.  
"So." Patrick repeats, and squeezes Pete's hand back.  
"So, apparently you think I've got gorgeous eyes and an amazing ass." Pete giggles and Patrick hesitates and then laughs along with him.  
"I'm going to kill Joe."

Pete isn't going to kill Joe. He might actually buy Joe a nice thank you present instead.

*


End file.
